China has increased the production of rabies vaccines to cope with the rising number of rabies cases, according to the State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA).

Statistics from the administration showed that from Aug. 1 to Sept. 4, a total of 2.595 million doses of rabies vaccines were approved to be put on market, almost 1 million over the monthly average in the first half of this year.

"The increased supply of vaccines has relieved growing demand of rabies vaccines," said the SFDA's spokeswoman Yan Jiangying.

Statistics from the Ministry of Health showed that in 2006, rabies was ranked the second killer among the infectious diseases. It has stayed at the top of the list of fatal infectious diseases in China from Jan. to Aug. this year.

In China, production of one dose of vaccine against rabies will take three to six months. Moreover, vaccine production is based on plans made in accordance with predicted demand at the beginning of each year.

The disease prevention and control center in Beijing reported a rapid increase of rabies cases, as patients scratched or bitten by cats and dogs exceeded 100,000 person times from Jan. 1 to Aug. 6, up 33.7 percent year-on-year.

As a result, rabies vaccine is insufficient as the rabies patients had a sharp increase so far this year.

Yan also called for enhanced management over the raising of dogs, saying it is the ultimate solution.

(Xinhua News Agency September 17, 2007)